Things to Do in Olive Branch, MS

Things to do in Olive Branch, MS is a question that deserves a much better answer than it usually gets — because Olive Branch is hiding one of the most genuinely surprising attractions in the whole Memphis metro: the largest bonsai nursery in America, free to walk, twenty minutes from the airport.

Here's the verified list for the metro's southeast corner. It completes our DeSoto County set with Southaven next door and joins Germantown and Collierville across the line; what's happening this week covers the whole metro every weekday.

The anchors

Five reasons Olive Branch deserves the drive down 78.

• Brussel's BonsaiCenter Hill Rd

  The largest dedicated bonsai nursery in the United States — nearly 200,000 square feet of greenhouses you can wander for free, Mon–Fri 8am–4:30pm. Trees from beginner junipers to museum-grade specimens, and an annual Rendezvous festival with international bonsai masters over Memorial Day weekend. Nothing else like it within 500 miles.

• Olive Branch City ParkGoodman Rd

  135 acres and stacked: three lakes (one with a fishing pier), two miles of trails, an 18-hole disc golf course, a mountain-bike trail, pickleball and tennis, dog parks, and the amphitheater that hosts the city's festivals. Free, open 6am–11pm daily.

• Old Towne Olive BranchHistoric downtown

  The walkable historic district — antique shops, restaurants, a historic walking trail, the Arts in the Alley exhibit, and the landmark Wesson House. The city runs a Thursday-night Hootenanny music tradition in spring and fall plus free summer concerts; check the city calendar for current dates.

• Olive Branch Farmers MarketCity Hall, Pigeon Roost Rd

  Saturdays 8am–noon, June through September, with 60+ vendors — note it's at the City Hall lot now, not Old Towne, whatever older listings say.

• Cherokee Valley Golf ClubCrumpler Blvd

  The metro's southeast championship option: a public 18-hole, par-72 course stretching 6,751 yards, with a driving range. Twenty minutes from the airport.

More worth knowing

The supporting cast — including real ice, all year.

• Mid-South Ice HouseRidgeway Industrial Dr

  Memphis and the Mid-South's ice skating rink, as they bill it — public skate sessions ($15, ages 3 and under $7, skate rental $5), year-round hockey leagues, even curling. Session times shift seasonally; check the calendar before you go.

• George M. Harrison Soccer Park8700 Church Rd

  110 acres with five lighted international-size fields plus a lake and pavilion — tournament weekends bring half the metro's youth soccer down here, and the city's expansion plans add a multi-use trail and two more fields.

• DeSoto Wings & Ribs FestivalCity Park

  The city's signature cook-off — a sanctioned rib-and-wing competition benefiting the DeSoto Dream Center, held each April at City Park. Circle spring 2027.

Where Olive Branch is — and how far from Memphis

Olive Branch sits in DeSoto County, Mississippi — the Memphis metro's southeast corner, just over the state line. The city's own welcome page keeps it simple: 'minutes from Memphis.' In practice, Brussel's Bonsai and Cherokee Valley are about twenty minutes from Memphis International Airport, straight down the US-78/I-22 corridor, which makes Olive Branch the easiest Mississippi day trip on our DeSoto County list.

It's also not a sleepy detour: the city calls itself 'one of the fastest-growing communities in the south,' and was recognized as one of the best places to live near a large city in 2022 — which tracks with how much of the metro's youth-soccer, disc-golf, and farmers-market traffic heads down 78 on a Saturday.

The honest answers